Influencers Weekly Devotional

Jesus the Man

by

Rocky Fleming

“The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.” (John 2:13-15, ESV)

We are within the week before Easter as I write this devotional. Most churches recognize “Palm Sunday” as the beginning of what some call The Passion Week. So, based on scripture references, we see that Jesus did a little Temple cleansing on Monday of that week, and the next day He confronted the Temple leadership who was upset by what He did. The rest of the week led to His betrayal and crucifixion. It is clear that the regious establishment and the corruption standing in the way of people who wanted to come to God angered Him, as we look at the account of the cleansing of the Temple. In fact He was greatly angered by it, and we need to understand this. Scripture would indicate that Jesus had enough time to think about it, by taking the time to weave a whip together to use it to make His point. He didn’t have a spontaneous, knee jerk reaction, as some of us do when surprised and angered. No, His was a simmering, well thought through anger that was caused by what He had seen many times for years in that Temple, and what was allowed to go on as a religious practice. After all, look at the many confrontations by the religious establishment and Jesus that would tell us how He detested what they were doing. He was not mildly ticked. He was deeply angered. To try and understand this as it really happened and not allow sterilized views to guide us, I think it would be good for you and me to close our eyes as men, and try to visualize the drama of what happened that day. Look at how Jesus drove livestock out of their corrals, turned over tables stacked with coins, and then gave a beating to the extortionists and their animals, as He drove them both out of the holy site He called His Father’s house. Can you see it in your mind’s eye? What we will see is a riot of sorts, would we not? Animals, scared to death, running wildly through the crowds with people trying to get out of their way, or herd them up. Coins scattered all over the place, with greedy men on their knees trying desperately to sweep them up before other people picked the coins up, or before being run over by a stampede of scared animals. Chaos would be a good description of what we would have seen if we had been there, and Jesus was the cause of this chaos. What? The mild mannered, pacifist like Jesus caused this mess at the Temple mound? Hard to understand, when we think of the personality of the man who has been presented to us over the years isn't it? It would not make sense with that view of Him. But, what if He was not like these impressions describe? If we understand the man Jesus, we may better understand His actions. Let's try to do this. With the scene I have described in your mind, my question to you is, “Where is the passive Jesus we have seen depicted in the paintings and songs we grew up with? Is this the same European, tall, slender, thoughtful, reflective, passive figure we have seen in classic art for several hundred years, who is not languishing on a hill but rather has a whip in His hand? Where is a painting of the angry Jesus so that I can understand it? Is this the man we grew up thinking would never do anything that was “un-Jesus” like, or at least be contrary to the Jesus we were led to think He was suppose to look and act like? No, that will probably not be the passive Jesus you will see in this scene. Those paintings and songs give us a different impression, and it is likely because the artist didn’t get in touch with Jesus, the man when he painted or wrote it. They just can't adequately capture Him. For example, the man who stood in front of the Temple that day was not a tall, slender European figure as depicted. He was a thoroughbred Jew from His mother's side, brown skin, likely a powerful man because He had worked as a carpenter, probably no more than 6 feet tall, if that much, and was anything but passive. He was a man’s man in every way, but was still God in the flesh. Hard to think of Jesus panting with anger from the exertion of handling a whip after thrashing the animals out away from the Temple, isn’t it. But that is the way it was. How about those angry eyes we see in Him as we visualize the event? I’ve never seen angry eyes with Jesus in any of the paintings depicting Him, have you? But, you know He had them on this occasion, for like I said He was ticked off. How can this be, for they would have been the same eyes that had winked kindly at children only a few days before, and would have been the first thing seen by a blind man who had just received his sight from Jesus. How could those kind, understanding eyes change from kindness to anger and still be Jesus? It was because Jesus had deep, passionate, emotions. Yes, make peace that this human characteristic was with Jesus, as it is with most of us, because He was also fully man. Listen to my reasoning: Do you really think anything but an emotionally involved person would do what He did in front of that temple? Jesus was passionately involved with His message and His purpose, and He wanted the observers that day to know He was not play-acting. He let them know in uncertain terms that He hated what they were doing. I don’t read that any of those people came back on Him with fists and angry words, do you? I think it is because He shocked and frightened them so much, they really didn’t know what to do but flee. His moral authority and passion about the issue was so strong, there was no question as to how He felt. Can you see it any differently? Maybe you think me sacrilegious for saying these “human” things about Jesus? Maybe I am, if I am being evaluated based on His characteristics that are contrary to a view that says these things are not “Jesus-like.” But maybe the sterilized view of our Savior King that has been presented to us through the years is more of a sacrilege to our understanding of Him than we realize? Maybe we do not really get in touch with the man Jesus and His emotions, His passions, His love, and His anger against those things that separate man from God, and we need to see it as He did? Sometimes I think we forget that Jesus was a courageous, passionate and decisive Messiah, along with being kind, tender and gracious? And as a result, our diminished view of Him fails to fully take in the drama of that Passion Week. I fear that this tainted view will cause us to inadequately prepare for understanding the tremendous battle He had to fight for you and me that week, culminating on a cross on Friday. When we read that Jesus sweated drops of blood, do we understand that this is a condition that can actually happen to a human when he or she is in great stress? The condition is rare, but it happens. It is called “hematohidrosis.” Jesus was in great stress for us and about what He would be facing. There is no doubt about this. He was emotionally involved. To think otherwise is to take ourselves out of the truth of what really happened, and we forget that it was the man Jesus who had to fight for you and me. He was fully God. But also fully man. Does mentioning these human characteristics about Jesus seem to say that He was any less God than He is, and blasphemous on my part to point it out? Not to me. The characteristics of Jesus confirm to me what scripture pointed out in Philippians 2:5-8 about Jesus’ humanity, and how He had to wage a great effort as a man to win His battle for me, not as God, but as a man. He had to win my life for His kingdom using everything in Him as a man to overcome my inadequacies as a man, and it causes me to worship Him even more deeply as God. Look at what the scriptures says: “….Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8, ESV) As you and I approach this Good Friday, and the much better Easter Sunday that will follow, let’s honor Jesus Christ as we should by understanding better the depth of what Jesus the God man did for you and me. Let’s you and me get our emotions involved with it, and understand that it is a good thing that they are involved. It is a good thing, because Jesus showed us that emotions are also the characteristics of God the Father, as well as His own. After all, we were created in His image. Happy Easter. HE IS RISEN!!! Download file